Moreover the harbor of Algiers, “formed by an artificial mole, was defended by double and triple rows of heavy batteries, so that over five hundred pieces of ordnance bore upon the maritime approaches of the place.” In fact, when England in the year 1816 made war on the Dey, “five ships of the line, five frigates, four bomb ketches and five gun-brigs were deemed by the Lords of the Admiralty too small a force.” On June 15, 1815, Decatur’s squadron arrived off Tangiers at the mouth of the Strait of Gibraltar, and learned that the pirate admiral, Rais Hammida, in his forty-six-gun frigate _Mashouda_, had sailed up the Mediterranean two days before, intending to call at Carthagena. At this the entire American squadron sailed into the Mediterranean and after a brief call at Gibraltar came in sight of the _Mashouda_ at daylight on the morning of June 17. The enemy when first seen was lying-to under top-sails off Cape Gata, but heading toward the African shore. The pirate admiral was wholly unsuspicious of the character of the approaching Yankee squadron until the _Constellation_, the nearest of the squadron, was but a mile away. At that time the American flag was set on the _Constellation_ by a mistake. Decatur ordered the British flag set on all the other ships, but Hammida had taken alarm, and spreading his wings like a flushed partridge--making sail with a rapidity that excited the admiration of the Yankees--he headed for Algiers, not far away. There was an easterly wind, but the Algerian soon found that the _Constellation_ was heading him off, and when the Yankee opened fire on him he tacked about and headed for a neutral port on the north shore. At this the squadron tacked in pursuit, and the flagship _Guerrière_ soon overhauled the enemy. Pirate though he was, it is impossible not to feel some admiration for the Algerian admiral and his crew in the fight that followed. It was one ship against a squadron and small guns against large, but Rais Hammida never thought of surrender. On the contrary, the pirates opened with muskets as the brig _Guerrière_ ranged up. A man was shot from the _Guerrière’s_ wheel and others were injured, but Decatur waited until he was yard-arm to yard-arm and then fired a broadside that made the enemy shiver. The pirate admiral had been wounded by a shot from the _Constellation_ and was unable to stand, but he had bravely remained on deck, lying on a couch. Now a forty-two-pounder shot struck him at the first broadside of the _Guerrière_, cutting him entirely in two.